i made a smoked brown ale with maple at about 11%ABV to enter in a home brew contest. Any recommendations on what category this would fit best

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Not having tried it, I would likely be going with 32B - Specialty Smoked Beer, declaring it as an American Brown Ale, note what kind of wood / smoke character it was made with with (or what kind of smoked malt), and note that it was made with maple syrup in the ingredients / processes section.

I would only declare the maple syrup if the beer has a distinct maple syrup flavor. If you mention something that the judges can't pick up on, it will hurt your score.

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Absolutely the best advice. Sometimes you find that out the hard way. Always try take yourself out of the role of making the beer and ask yourself what does the beer taste like. What flavors are coming through that will be picked up by the judges.

I hope OP doesn't mind if I hop on this style advice train... I have an RIS that I aged on oak with cocoa nibs, cinnamon and cognac. I would say all flavors are noticeably present. Should I be looking at spice/herb/vegetable beer, or specialty wood age beer?

I hope OP doesn't mind if I hop on this style advice train... I have an RIS that I aged on oak with cocoa nibs, cinnamon and cognac. I would say all flavors are noticeably present. Should I be looking at spice/herb/vegetable beer, or specialty wood age beer?

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I'd probably go with Specialty Wood Aged Beer, describing the base beer as a Russian Imperial Stout, and stating that the wood aged character was Cognac. I would probably skip the description of the cocoa nibs and cinnamon and let the judge believe that character is coming from the base style (the cocoa nibs) and the wood aging (the cinnamon).